Chess
Prague Chess Festival: Aravindh Chithambaram stuns World Champion Gukesh
Gukesh has now dropped to World No. 20 in the Live FIDE Classic ratings.
Aravindh Chithambaram at the 2026 Prague Chess Festival (Photo credit: Petr Vrabec/ Prague Chess Festival)
The reigning world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, continued to struggle at the 2026 Prague Chess Festival, suffering his third loss in his last four games in Czechia on Tuesday.
Gukesh, playing with the white pieces, bowed down to fellow countryman Aravindh Chithambaram in 48 moves because of a big mistake in the endgame.
This was his second consecutive defeat after the 5th round loss to Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), and he now dropped down to last position with just 1.5 points from 6 games.
Meanwhile, defending champion GM Aravindh Chithamabaram ended his two-match losing streak and is now in joint 6th position with 2.5 points.
He is two points behind the current leader, Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands and with just 3 games to go its tough for him to defend his title.
In the seventh round on Wednesday, he will take on Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan, while Gukesh will be up against Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo.
Gukesh will be aiming to find his rhythm back as he has now dropped down to 20th place in the Live FIDE Classical Ratings, losing out on 19.5 ratings points in Prague.
In the Challengers section, Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh and GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly both played out draws in their respective sixth-round games.